[AG-TECH] "The Case for a Multicast Session Layer"

[Lawrence A. Rowe]

Hi -

Andrew Swan and I just finished a paper arguing for the creation of a
multicast session layer for developing multicast applications that we
are submitting to the HotNets Workshop - see
	 http://www.acm.org/sigs/sigcomm/HotNets-II/

People interested in this topic can read a copy of the paper submitted
to the conference at
	http://www.openmash.org/resources/pubs/2003/168/

Information on the paper is:
------------
               The Case for a Multicast Session Layer 
                  Andrew Swan and Lawrence A. Rowe

The past decade has seen a great deal of effort invested in developing
multicast technology for the Internet. Unfortunately, early excitement
about multicast has given way to frustration with the challenges of
designing and deploying a scalable multicast service. The reaction to
the slow deployment of multicast has been an explosion in different
implementation techniques designed for specific applications. None of
these new services have been widely deployed. As a result, multicast
technology is complex and confusing to application writers. To address
this complexity, we argue for development of a multicast session layer.
By decoupling the service model and programming interface from the
underlying implementation, this new layer simultaneously simplifies the
development of multicast applications and eases the deployment of new
multicast technology. We outline the case for a multicast session layer
and discuss principles for its design.
------------

Needless to say, this is Andrew's Phd Dissertation work which he is
already working on.  Comments appreciated.
	Larry
-- 
Professor Lawrence A. Rowe          Internet: Rowe at BMRC.Berkeley.EDU
Computer Science Division - EECS       Phone: 510-642-5117
University of California, Berkeley       Fax: 510-642-5615
Berkeley, CA 94720-1776            URL: http://bmrc.berkeley.edu/~larry